The Steel Guitar Forum

After years of not playing I just bought myself a Fender Dual 8 with trapezoid pick ups. Thing is the bottom neck sounds real "fat" , good basstones and mid but the topneck sounds withy no basstones at all, just treble. Has anyone an idea what the problem could be? The volume on both necks is the same, it's just that the top neck has no "body" just high tones. If anyone has an idea what the problem could be, or even better, a suggestion to solve this, please let me know!

Sounds like you need to send to PU off to Lindy Fralin or forumite Jason Lollar for a rewind! This isn't so uncommon. Sometimes the old Fender Trap PU's are hard to predict. Sometimes they last 50 years and sometime they last six years.

Kayton Roberts had Fender rewrap the PU's on his '51 in 1957 because they didn't last that long. He still plays the same guitar today and they haven't been rewrapped in 51 years.

Best case scenario they just need the magnets to be remagnetized. Forumite Rick Aeillo is the guy for that. I'm sure he will show up in this thread sooner that later.

Either way, it's not that bad or expensive to get these amazing guitars to sound their finest.

CS

My '52 Custom has the same problem, the bottom (inside) neck sounds OK but the mid and top necks sound thin. I have been also wondering what is causing this?

The first thing you should do is go to Rick Aeillo's website and read everything about the trapezoid pickups. There is a common thing that happens to them with age that makes them sound weird. It's easy to fix. Another thing that could be causing your problem is bad wiring.

Lollar rewound two of the three Trapezoid's on a Custom for me. All sound fantastic now, like Chris said it is well worth it.

J. Lollar told me that he is too busy to repair these pickups.

Has anybody a e-mail adress of Lindy Fralin ???
Cannot find it on his website.

Thomas

I'd send the magnets to Rick first. If the magnets are weak a rewind won't help. Jerry Wallace can do the rewinds.

If you really want to be sure that all P/U's are equal, I would recommend having all rewound at the same time. Jason Lollar rewound the P/U's for two Fender Customs for me several years ago and he actually wound them a little heavier than the originals and they both sounded REALLY great! [± 11,000]

Thanks everybody for your suggestions!

How can I find out if the magnets are weak or the pickups needs a rewind ???

What does the pickup sound when magnets are weak ?
What does the pickup sound when a rewind is needed ?

Thomas

Thomas Ludwig wrote: What does the pickup sound when magnets are weak ?
What does the pickup sound when a rewind is needed ?

To be quite honest ... all Fender Trap and Boxcar magnets need to be remagnetized ...

I have done alot of sets* ... most come in 40-50% depleted ... some as much as 70%.

The quality of the magnets is stellar ... that's not the issue ... it's the fact that "like poles" have been yolked (physically connected by ferromagnetic material) ... for what ... 50+ yrs.

Folks who have had me do this ... generally say they love the sound of their pickups, before the remag ...

But when they get them back ... they can't believe the difference.

Greater output, bigger bass response and a more complete harmonic spectrum ... are the usual remarks made when the strength of the magnets go up.

As far as rewinds ...

Well, if you get a DC resistance in the neighborhood of 8k Ohm ...

And the orifice still is open enough for the strings to vibrate ... without buzzing the top or bottom ...

Then the coil is probably fine ...

If it is bad ... and Jason Lollar is too swamped with work ...

I'd send it to Jerry Wallace (TrueTones) ... as Mr. Gilbert has said above ...

http://www.jerrywallacemusic.com/

* I'm still ... Magin' for b0b

Rick,
thank you for your post, it was really helpful for me.

Thomas